


better left to be said (later on)

by InkWitch (serkestic)



Category: Free!
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-26
Packaged: 2018-03-25 19:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3822463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serkestic/pseuds/InkWitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They worked well together, Gou reflected, but then they had always done. They had an understanding.</p><p>[for <a href="http://gouallout.tumblr.com/">gouallout</a>: day 2]</p>
            </blockquote>





	better left to be said (later on)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [derasorea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/derasorea/gifts).



> **home alone**  
>  I'm not entirely sure if this follows the prompt but. They are at home. And they are alone. So...
> 
> This is **for De** , because I let her birthday pass with no gifts (I found out too late! :( Sorry De! ♥) and because she needs more SouGou in her life. (And let’s be real here, _everyone_ needs more SouGou in their lives.)

“You look cute,” said Sousuke, amusement coloring his voice. Gou shot him a look of pure contempt.

“Thank you,” she said, smoothing her hands over her red-checkered apron primly. Her mother had gotten the frilly, ribboned item as a gift for Gou, partly as encouragement to keep working at her cooking (she could finally fry an egg without burning it!) and partly as a joke. It was nothing to _her_ , Gou thought as she watched Sousuke try and fail to stifle his giggles, but _other people_ found it an object of great hilarity.

“Are we going to get started or are you going to spend the day laughing at me, Sousuke-kun?”

“Alright, alright, keep your apron on.” Sousuke nearly swallowed his tongue in his new bout of laughter. Gou tapped her foot dangerously and he choked himself to silence. “Okay, let’s start.”

The summer’s day was light and fresh. The recent humid, rain-threatening air seemed to have decided to change its outlook on life and the sun and skies had responded accordingly: the sky was a rich opaque blue with flimsy clouds looking for their vanished neighbors, and the sun was determined to make day time as enjoyable as possible, beaming down benign warm sunlight. Despite the day’s tantalizing calls, however, Gou and Sousuke were, with admirable fortitude, stationed in the kitchen of the otherwise empty Matsuoka residence. Gou preferred zero audience in case she made dumb mistakes.

Not that she was prone to such things but – well. Sousuke-kun had opted for a light blue t-shirt and khakis in deference to the inviting weather. The contrast against his tan and vivid teal eyes could hardly be unnoticeable. He had also grown rather tall recently. Sousuke was fourteen and a head taller than Gou. She was thirteen and one could _hardly_ blame her.

She supposed that maybe she should have seen something of this sort coming when she had asked for his help in the first place. It wasn’t news to her that her childhood friend and pseudo-brother was growing up and was an athlete with an athlete’s body. Even if it hadn’t automatically registered when she had walked in on him changing his shirt one day, Sousuke casually telling Gou to shut the door behind her, there was a draft; she certainly could not ignore that seventy percent of the female population of her class envied her easy relationship with Yamazaki-kun. But Gou had somehow expected her even more extensive history to overshadow any stupid hormonal misjudgments or reactions. She was probably the only girl in the school to have witnessed Yamazaki-kun picking his nose, after all.

To no avail. Sousuke-kun looked distressingly aesthetic and Gou was distressingly aware. He didn’t even look odd in her mother’s apron, Gou observed resentfully. The boy in the green apron was currently scrutinizing the groceries that they had spread on the counter. Going grocery shopping with Sousuke-kun had been newly unpleasant; because while Gou could interpret accurately the fond and casually teasing attitude that Sousuke adopted towards her, the elderly shoppers with indulgent smiles or the teen cashier with the knowing smirk definitely couldn’t.

“We have everything we need,” announced Sousuke. He raised an eyebrow at Gou’s absently irritated expression. “Or do you think we missed something? Gou?”

Gou snapped out of her uncomfortable reliving to respond emphatically, “No,” before realizing what she was replying to. Casting a quick glance confirmed that her answer wasn’t wrong, fortunately.

“You can start on the _genmai_ , then,” said Sousuke. “I’ll chop vegetables.”

Gou nodded and went to wash the rice. When she glanced to the side to see Sousuke methodically chopping cabbage, she felt an inexplicable warmth flare up in her chest.

“Thank you for this, Sousuke-kun.”

Sousuke’s hands stopped with a jerk. He looked up questioningly and Gou smiled. “You didn’t have to come help me today. I know that Furumiya-senpai invited you to play football on his team since Akage-senpai’s ill.”

He shrugged, going back to his work with some added caution, and said, “I didn’t want to play, to tell you the truth. Furumiya’s full of himself because he thinks he’s the only one who can do a spin kick and I wouldn’t have liked him to be my captain. This is more fun anyway,” he grinned at her, his eyes dropping to her lurid apron. Gou clattered a pot threateningly. “You looked like you needed me more than they did. You look tired, Gou.”

This was said in an airy tone, as if in passing observation; but Gou knew better. She took her time tipping rice into the cooker.

“I’m fine,” said Gou. “Mama’s the one who’s tired. She stays up ‘til one after working all day, even when I ask her to go to sleep! That’s why I wanted to learn how to make a proper meal for her to come home to.”

For a moment, a comfortable silence settled over the two of them as they continued with their respective tasks. Sousuke put aside the vegetables he’d sliced and started cutting up pork loin chops for the _tonkatsu_ he was going to make (Gou had suggested _katsudon_ since it would be healthier, but a steely stare caused her to meekly accept her pork-cutlet fate); Gou tore up bread crumbs. They worked well together, Gou reflected, but then they had always done. They had an understanding.

“You’re working hard too, Gou,” said Sousuke quietly.

 _Too_ much of an understanding, Gou thought, her eyes filling with moisture. She blinked rapidly and bowed her head, as if concentrating on her work. “I’ll be fine,” she said, and ignored the slanted look that her companion sent her way. “Summer break is almost here, after all. Then it will be all parties and dates and fun! I’ll be alright.”

When Gou looked up at the sudden pause, she found Sousuke staring at her, hands stationary on the hilt of a knife. Then he shook his head and said, “You can fool yourself, Gou, but you can’t fool me.”

Gou said nothing and after another pause, Sousuke spoke again. “You know, a friend of yours approached me with a confession last week.”

Her hands slipped and she nearly knocked the bowl to the floor. Setting down the apparatus carefully, Gou turned to gape at Sousuke, whose quivering lips indicated that her fumble did not go unseen.

“ _What_?”

“You didn’t hear?”

“I haven’t heard _anything_ like that! Who are you talking about?”

He shrugged, deliberately careless. “Hanamura? Hanayoshi? Something of that sort. I only recognized her because I’d seen you two together a lot in first year.”

Gou frowned. “I don’t know anyone called Hanamura.”

“Ah, I remember, she said her name was… Kaneyoshi-san–”

“ _Sa_ neyoshi Shizuumi?”

“That’s her.”

Gou gave him a wry look. “You have a terrible memory for names, Sousuke-kun.” He flicked a rice grain at her in response. She went on, “Anyways, Shizuumi-san and I aren’t friends anymore: maybe acquaintances, but nothing more than that. So I wouldn’t have heard anything.”

Sousuke raised an eyebrow. “Did you have a fight?”

“Nothing so dramatic.” She set a pan on the stove and poured oil into it, watching tiny bubbles in the liquid pop slowly. “We only became friends because we were both on the baton-twirling team. When I left the team, there wasn’t much I had in common with her so we stopped being friends.” She glanced up, him having gone unusually somber. “Did you say yes?”

Sousuke jerked out of his thoughts with a look of surprise. “What? Of course not.”

“Well, why _of course_ not? Shizuumi-san is very pretty and she told good jokes.”

Sousuke rolled his eyes. “I don’t care for that sort of stuff, Gou. Besides,” he leaned closer, handing her the salt container, teasing, “You’re the only girl I’d laugh at.”

“Thanks,” she grumbled but the flare of her heartbeat was unmistakable. She tried to focus on being irritated at his chuckling, knowing rather well that crushing on your friend, whom you’ve known since childhood, was not only cliché but bound to be painful in all sorts of uncomfortable ways.

“Saneyoshi-san isn’t the only friend you’ve fallen out with, is she?” Sousuke was saying. “I know that you don’t really speak to Chihara-san from 2B anymore, but last year you’d spend all your lunch hours with her.”

“Are you stalking me?” she demanded.

“I have _eyes_ , Gou,” he said, rolling them again. But he sobered, looking at her with a penetrating intensity. “You seem to lose friends as quickly as you make them. What’s up with that?”

How to explain? It was more than just socializing for Gou and for that very reason; it was less about _making_ friendships and more about _having_ them. Gou loved and lost; but as she looked at the concerned boy at her side, as intent and awkwardly earnest about protecting her as forever, she did not feel like it made any difference to her. She had all she needed already.

So she shrugged, “They have no staying power, I guess.”

“None of them, huh?”

“Only Sousuke-kun, I suppose.”

She said it casually but at this, Sousuke stopped his work to stare at her. Gou looked away quickly, a tiny pink flush on her cheeks, so she missed the way Sousuke’s ears heated red.

“Is that your attempt at changing my mind about Tokyo?”

His voice came out a little gruff but the warm joking tone was familiar as ever. Gou raised her eyes to pin him with an affronted glower.

“I said already that I won’t try to,” she huffed. And then broke into laughter when he nudged her with an elbow. “I know it wouldn’t work so what’s the point? I’ll just have to be content with cheering you on from home while you go ahead and leave me behind.” She mock-pouted, crossing her arms theatrically to make him laugh.

But instead of heeding his cue, Sousuke met her gaze with a quiet, intent expression. She had never seen such a look on his face before; and inexplicably, she felt her palms moisten.

“I’ll always come back to you, Gou.”

He said it soft, sincere; so she couldn’t help herself as she replied in kind.

“I’ll be waiting.”

He stilled, his lines gentling as he stared at her. They were so _bright_ , his eyes, Gou thought, but they had a dark depth to them that was unnoticeable until he locked gazes with you.

The summer’s day was bright and pretty. The sky was the sweet blue of a lover’s eyes and the sun was warm, happy, blushing. So were the two in the kitchen, attempting to ignore the beckoning call of nature’s amity, and as they abruptly continued their bustle with cooking, their promises lingered over them, shining as golden and comforting as the sunshine from the skylight.


End file.
